Do You Know Who Owns More of Texas Than Anyone Else?

You probably have passed by a huge parcel of land that just goes on as far as the eye can see and wondered who owns it. It's a question that many of us ask. According to a recent report, only a handful of people own most of the land in Texas and around the country.

Biggest Landowners in America

Did you know about 60 percent of land in the United States is privately owned by just a few individuals and families? According to Successful Farming, to qualify as a major landowner, you must own a minimum of 243.75 square miles.

World Population Review lists the Emmerson Family as the largest landowner in the United States, with 2.3 million acres of land throughout three different states:  California, Washington, and Oregon.

The Land Report states that when Archie Aldis 'Red' Emmerson, the 93-year-old founder of Sierra Pacific Industries, acquired Seneca Jones Timber, the company became America’s largest private landowner.

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Largest Landowner in Texas

Over 95 percent of the State of Texas is privately owned. As of October 2022, King Ranch is the largest privately owned property in Texas, according to World Population Review. The ranch in Kingsville covers portions of six different Texas counties.

King Ranch in Texas

King Ranch is the largest ranch in the United States, located in South Texas between Corpus Christi and Brownsville. It is privately owned by around 60 people who are the descendants of Richard King.

To give you some perspective on the size of the property, King Ranch is larger than the entire state of Rhode Island (which has 776,900 acres). The ranch, which mainly raises cattle, has 825,000 acres split into four separate sections called Home Ranches, according to real estate website Sammy's Land For Sale. It was founded in 1853 by Captain Richard King and Gideon K. Lewis, according to the official ranch website.

See the full list of the largest landowners across the nation by state here.